Some Blog Site

I wish I would have started working on cars earlier in life – it would have saved me a bunch of money. Here are some things I’ve learned over the last few years of working on my own cars.

• When replacing suspension components that involve removing sway bar links, plan ahead and get new sway bar links. This tip does not apply to places where cars don’t get rusty. But around here, sway bar links are considered single-use. They are designed to be able to be removed and re-installed, but that’s only in a perfect world. They’re cheap enough that it’s not worth my time to try to save them. I’ll give it one attempt to undo them, but if they don’t cooperate I just get out the angle grinder and off they go.
• Speaking of sway bar links (and other stubborn rusty connectors), a good tool to have is an impact wrench. It doesn’t loosen everything, but it has helped. And it helps tighten those sway bar links. I got a cheap electric one from Harbor Freight. I went with corded electric because I don’t have shop air and I don’t use it enough to make it worth managing batteries.
• The steering wheel on the van was wobbling. Slowly at low speeds and faster at higher speeds. That seemed like an easy diagnosis – one of the front tires broke a belt and is now out of round. So I swapped out the front tires (normal to winter or vice-versa) but the problem continued. I took it to the shop and told them what happened. It didn’t take them long looking at it to find it was a rear tire with the broken belt. Moral of the story: just because the symptom is in the steering wheel doesn’t mean the problem is in the front end.

Like everyone else these days, we’re getting a lot of things delivered rather than going to the store to buy them. But with a combination of various personalities of the people doing the delivering, and the layout of our driveway and front walkway, we were never sure where our packages would actually end up.

Our driveway, naturally, ends up at our garage. Some people would park next to the garage, then walk the package across the front of the house to the front porch. They probably do that to keep the package safe from rain/snow/spy satellites/etc. And I appreciated that. But that’s a longer walk than they need to take, and I’d like to help their day go quicker.

Some people would park next to the garage and put the packages on the ground just outside the garage, moreso when the garage door was closed, but also sometimes when it was open. If it was when we were out, there were multiple times when I’d pull up to the garage, stop and get out to move the package, then get back in and pull into the garage.

Then there are the delivery guys (yes it is guys, as the gals all seem to be in the first category of walking it to the front porch) who put the packages inside the garage if the door is open. Sometimes just inside the garage, sometimes behind our minivan, and sometimes halfway in the garage.

So, lots of options where people can and do delivery stuff.

In general, I like to avoid ambiguity. And this situation had some ambiguity that I realized I could prevent. So I did.

I built, right next to our garage door, a package delivery nook thingy.
It has a roof so the conscientious people can leave things there, knowing they’ll be protected from the rain.
And it’s right next to the garage, so the people who don’t want to walk much don’t have to go very far.
And it’s about at the height where the bottom of the box is for someone carrying it with their arms down, so there’s no bending down involved.
And it has a sign, so the people know it’s for them to use.

I put it up, and on the very next delivery the person used it.

Here it is, the first thing delivered to the new package nook:

Now I am happier that things should be delivered more consistently, and I hope the delivery personnel are better off too.

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2020 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2020 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

It was just Mother’s Day, so the SSA released the name rankings for 2020. Last year’s champion, Jackson is again the most popular boy’s name in the US but just barely. Last year it had a lead of just over 1800; this year its lead is only 140ish.
No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again, and by a similar margin as last year.

Some Stats

• The top 3 names for the boys are the same, but Oliver jumped past Aiden into 4th place, and Elijah passed Lucas for 6th.
• The top 8 names for the girls are the same as 2019, and in the same order.
• Again, Liam has the title of the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 2.
• Again, Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 3.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (269/1000 vs. 178/1000 alternates)
• Kayson once again took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 8.
• For the girls, Adaline and Madelynare tied for the most spelling variations at 6.
• All the top boy spots had their numbers go down last year, as did all the girls. I wouldn’t make too much of it without further analysis, because I don’t know if the total numbers went down too.

2020 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2019 SFS List of Baby Names that Combine Similar Pronunciations. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2019 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

Normally the baby names are released for Mother’s Day, but this year they blamed COVID-19 for a delay. They just published the 2019 names at the end of September, so now they are here on my site. Last year’s champion, Jackson is again the most popular boy’s name in the US but losing ground to Liam and Noah. Aiden is still losing popularity.
No controversy for the girls – it’s Sophia again. It’s holding strong, but last year’s 3rd place winner – Emma – took a nosedive this year.

Some Stats

• The top 4 names for the boys are the same, spot #5 last year William dropped way down, allowing Lucas to move up.
• The top 6 names for the girls are the same as 2018, it’s just that Emma and Amelia switched spots, as did Ava and Isabella.
• Again, Liam has the title of the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, at number 2.
• Again, Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, but at number 4.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (269/1000 vs. 180/1000 alternates)
• Kayson once again took the prize for the most spelling variations for the boys at 8.
• For the girls, Adaline, Madalyn and Layla are tied at 6 variations, and Amaya at lost one and is now at 5.
• Sophia is still the favorite for the girls, but the gap is closing. Spots 2 and 3 increased their count last year, so Sophia’s run at the top may have an end in sight. There’s still a lot of room between 1 and 2, so that end may be farther rather than closer.

2019 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

Here is a series of book titles and cover art that I’ve put together for what would happen if a famous boy wizard were an old-school pen plotter instead.

Book 1: Harry Plotter and the Sources of Toner

This is the most technically-incorrect title of the series, as a pen plotter does not use toner. And astute readers might notice that Harry Plotter is trying to catch containers of ink, not toner. But you get the idea.

And this is the book for American readers. British readers get “Harry Plotter and the Philosopher’s Toner”, which is not an engaging a plot as his search for the sources of toner. Spoiler alert: there are rivers of toner under the school, hidden under a trapdoor and guarded by Fluffy.

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For those of you who enjoyed the heyday of the Magic Eye posters, whereby focusing your eyes at a depth that’s not the surface of the paper you could see a hidden image, I have used my considerable knowledge of spreadsheets to produce a 3D image.

Behold, the Magic Spreadsheet:

Uncross your eyes until the letters align; unfocus your eyes until the double image matches up with the image next to it.

What I did here was put the bottom row with the same indentation of 0, the middle row gets an extra space each cell to the right, and the top row gets two extra spaces each cell to the right.

The shading was just for fun.

For your next presentation, try hiding some cheap stereograms. If you’re presenting your screen from a work-at-home situation, no one can see you cross your eyes.

I noticed some people were trying to use the German accenterator to sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The problem is that Arnold is not German, and he doesn’t sound like the stereotypical German.

So I went ahead and created an accenterator page for everyone’s favorite Austrian farmer. Go visit the Austrian accent page to try the accent.

One thing I noticed is there are many similarities between The Ahnold and a Boston accent. Try each of them with a phrase like ‘smart park your car in Harvard yard’ and see how close they are.

So why doesn’t Arnold sound like he’s from Boston? I think it’s mostly the tone of voice. That’s one of the drawbacks of written English – no tones. Say that phrase with a lower, more even tone and it’s Arnold. Say that same phrase with a higher, brighter tone and it’s Bostonian.